Sex in films can influence teens’ behaviours
Sunday, July 22, 2012
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Exposure to sexual content in movies at an early age probably influences
adolescents’ sexual behaviour, according to a new study. Even though a great
deal of research has shown that adolescents who watch more risky behaviours in
popular movies, like drinking or smoking, are more likely to drink and smoke themselves,
surprisingly little research has examined whether movies influence adolescents’
sexual behaviours until now.
Over six years, psychological
scientists examined whether or not seeing sex on the big screen translates into
sex in the real world for adolescents. Their findings revealed not only that it
did but also explained some of the reasons why.
“Much research has shown that
adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviours are influenced by media,” said
Ross O’Hara, currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri,
who conducted the research with other psychological scientists while at
Dartmouth College.
“But the role of movies has been
somewhat neglected, despite other findings that movies are more influential
than TV or music,” O’Hara noted.
Before recruiting participants
for the study, O’Hara and his fellow researchers surveyed 684 top grossing
movies from 1998 to 2004. They coded the movies for seconds of sexual content,
like heavy kissing or sexual intercourse.
Researchers then recruited 1,228
participants who were from 12 to 14 years of age. Each participant reported
which movies they had seen from a number of different collections of fifty that
were randomly selected. Six years later the participants were surveyed to find
out how old they were when they became sexually active and how risky their
sexual behaviour might have been. Did they use condoms consistently? Were they
monogamous or did they have multiple partners?
“Adolescents who are exposed to
more sexual content in movies start having sex at younger ages, have more
sexual partners, and are less likely to use condoms with casual sexual
partners,” O’Hara explained.
To find out why do movies have
these effects on adolescents, these researchers examined the role of a
personality trait known as sensation-seeking.
One of the great dangers of
adolescence, is the predisposition for sensation seeking behaviour. Between the
ages of ten and fifteen, the tendency to seek more novel and intense
stimulation of all kinds peaks. The wild hormonal surges of adolescence makes
judicious thinking a bit more difficult.
O’Hara and his colleagues found
that greater exposure to sexual content in movies at a young age actually led
to a higher peak in sensation seeking during adolescence. As a result,
sensation seeking sexual behaviour can last well into the late teens and even into
the early twenties if young people are exposed to these kinds of movies. But
researchers point out that sexual exposure in movies tends to activate
sensation seeking both because of biology and the way that boys and girls are
socialized.
“These movies appear to
fundamentally influence their personality through changes in sensation-seeking,
which has far-reaching implications for all of their risk-taking behaviours,”
O’Hara said.
But sensation seeking did not
entirely explain these effects; the researchers also speculate that adolescents
learn specific behaviours from the sexual messages in movies. Many adolescents
turn to movies to acquire “sexual scripts” that offer examples of how to behave
when confronted with complicated emotional situations.
Researchers point out that it is
important to remember that this research cannot conclude a direct causal effect
of movies on sexual behaviour. Nonetheless, O’Hara said, “This study, and its
confluence with other work, strongly suggests that parents need to restrict
their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages.”
Their
findings
will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the
Association for Psychological Science
(http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/SexAndRelationships/Sex-in-films-can-influence-teens-behaviours/Article1-891045.aspx)
Categories:
Sex and Behavior
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